OT: Who in the World Cup do you root for now?

With the United States being out of the World Cup, does anyone have an alternative option at hand? Do you go based on family lineage, favorite player(s), or favorite style of play? Of course if you're a citizen or dual citizen of another country it goes without saying. This is really weird for me, as my whole life the USMNT has been in every World Cup. Me? I'm hoping my boys from the Emerald Isle can pull off an upset of epic proportions to make it through the Euro playoff. Being Irish-German, it feels to cheap to throw my hat in for Germany.

I'm not professing myself to be a big fan of anything and I havent seen anyone do that in here ... hell im not a "big fan" of US Soccer. I am a big fan of my grandpa so given the opportunity I'll root for his home country as opposed to one that doesnt mean anything to me.

My parents are Egyptian immigrants and my dad was literally the biggest Egypt Football fan ever. He lost his battle to cancer last year and I know he helped Egypt make the penalty kick to clinch their first World Cup bid since 1990.

Even if the US made it, I'd probably root Egypt over them in honor of my dad.

France. I lived there for a time, got introduced to WC soccer (and PSG) while there, and it would be nice to have some sporps team that does something other than pop my soul dong. Plus you get to yell "Go Blue!" a lot, sorta.

The best soccer tournament in the world is NOT the World Cup, but Champions League, the annual tournament of the best of the best of the Euro leagues, where all star teams with the best players in the world compete.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Euro leagues, they are organized by country (English Premier League, La Liga (Spanish League), Bundesliga (German League), French League, Italian League, etc., and their teams are comprised of the very best players in the world...leagues of all star teams full of world class players who play together for nine months. The Champions League tournament, which also lasts nine months (concurrently with the regular Euro Leagues), skims the top two or three teams from each Euro League and they battle it out once a month (home and away) to determine who is the best of the best, in a bracketed tournament that is similar to March Madness, except it lasts nine months.

Yes, there are only certain teams that truly have a chance to win the World Cup, but here's the list of the last eight finalists: Brazil, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Argentina.

Agree it's the best soccer, and for me that makes it the best tournament, too.

My point is, most of the fair weather American soccer "fans" who get excited once every four years to support the US team are unaware that Champions League even exists, and add to that the US team has never been very good; and the fact that it has made it far into the brackets of the World Cup a few times is more related to having an easy draw and playing a "park the bus" style of sitting back defensively and counter-attacking to occassionally upset a legit team. It's a strategy that can be used by an inferior team to force a low scoring game and hope to win 1-0, but it's a boring game to watch. Watch Champions League this year when teams like Real Madrid and Paris St. Germaine get into the semi's, and you'll see quality of play a level above any World Cup team.

Let me also say this: we live in an increasingly dangerous, polarized world where extreme nationalism is on rise, and for me, I am less interested in supporting sporting events like the Olympics and World Cup for the reason that they help underscore the mantra of nation against nation ("us versus them"). Having the World Cup in Russia in 2018 is eerily reminiscent to me of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, where authoritarian regimes put lipstick on a pig to promote their political ideologies.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Euro leagues, they are organized by country (English Premier League, La Liga (Spanish League), Bundesliga (German League), French League, Italian League, etc., and their teams are comprised of the very best players in the world

Since we seem to be on a pompous/pedantic tangent, I'll just note that there is no such league called "French League" or "Italian League" but Ligue 1 and Serie A, respectively.